The State of Things by Jose Bedia

From May 13th through June 12th, 2006Fredric Snitzer Gallery presents The State of Things, a solo exhibition of new paintings by José Bedia. This show brings together Bedia’s sociological and cultural observations throughout his travels in life and books. His paintings have roots in native arts’ production and in the Afro-Cuban religion Santería. The themes of his work apply to the relationships between First and Third World. He shows in his work where the modern and technological first world collides with the spiritual and primitive third world. Ships and machines embody first world cultures ­ cold, empirical, and smoky ­ while beasts, tricksters, and active spirituality are signs of the third world. In Bedia¹s work both sides have incredible power and terrible flaws. The moments Bedia conveys are points of contact which have no easy explanation. Bedia¹s works are in the permanent collections of the Tate Modern, London;the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; MARCO (Museo de Arte Contemporanéo), Monterrey, Mexico; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, among others. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Cintas Foundation Fellowship and the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Grant. For more information, please call 305.448.8976